Things that make you go mmm...

I hate January and February. The post-Christmas lull when everything seems more dull, more grey. Mostly those 2 months just pass in a hazy blur and I finally come to in mid March when the weather starts looking brighter and the world starts to come out of hibernation. However, this last January I discovered something that gave me a little artificial Spring in my step. This revelation came from www.americansweets.co.uk. When I first ordered a package of long forgotten goodness such as Lucky Charms, Tootsie Rolls and copious amounts of Wonka sweets (runts, nerds and the like) it was like lifting a dreary fog. Irrational excitement to taste all those artificial flavours and colours! I actually thought while eating my first bowl of Charms that they were Joy. In a dish.

I am much more of a sweet than a chocolate person- parma violets, drumstick lollies, sherbert dips...love anything like that. I've also gone on to make a few orders since and have enjoyed such delectations I've never had before such as Twinkies, Oreo Cakes, Junior Mints. And a lot more. Which is unfortunate for my waistline. But the good thing with the multipack bags of Tootsie and Wonka is that each pack is only treat size and easy to limit. I'm actually counting calories at the moment to try and get rid of some excess baggage, I've struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember.

Besides my sweet tooth, I love to cook. Baking is very therapeutic for me, I find it a great relaxant. Especially when I was at uni...it was nice to come home and do something practical, to make something other than words on a page. All straight forward things like cookies, scones and cakes. I've also started cooking more seriously in the last few years, experimenting with things I've never cooked with before. I found out I can't stand goat's cheese too. It just tastes a bit...goaty? I have many cook books and have made some very delicious meals. My bible for everyday food is Jamie's Ministry of Food. I also think some of the recipes featured on Masterchef and Come Dine with Me are very innovative and great to try if you're an amateur. Even though I have a love-hate relationship with food, it will probably always fascinate me. Unless it's celery.

Life on film

After my last post I thought I'd talk a bit about films (finding myself fighting the use of 'movies'...I'm not keen on Americanisms). As I said I plan to look up The Golden Compass which is the film adaptation of His Dark Materials. I'm glad I read the book first, I usually find the films of books poor in comparison. The films of Twilight are good, but not great. Unfortunately t's just too watered down. You lose so much and a lot of it is so relevant to the story. I fell in love with Ed Cullen in the books but was fairly indifferent to Robert Pattinson's portrayal *shields head*. I was especially disappointed by Memoirs of a Geisha which was a fabulous book but a mediocre film. Kubrick's interpretation of a Clockwork Orange, while interesting in some ways, was so bizarre as to detract from so many important aspects fo the book. American Psycho is one of the films that made the switch more smoothly.

I don't tend to go see new cinema releases as I'd rather watch things at home (I get irrationally annoyed at spending 30 quid to be seated in front of 6 gossiping teens while eating stale popcorn and getting cramp). The last film I watched was Funny People, I'd expected it to be amazing. I think Adam Sandler is very talented but for me this film was too mind numbingly dull to even pretend there was some important message or that perhaps the humour was hidden. Seeing as how it was almost 2 and a half hours long, I'd hoped that the last half hour might present some kind of revelation or even point to the film. Not the case. Hmph.

I still love older films from the 80s or early 90s. I grew up enjoying films and treasuring those small black slabs of plastic. I loved videos so much I still have a massive collection of them and still have a video player in pride of place on my TV stand. My favourites include: Beetlejuice, Weird Science, Short Circuit, The Navigator, Flatliners, Tremors (actually a terrible film but I have a thing for Kevin Bacon!), Poltergeist, Batteries Not Included, Drop Dead Fred, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Dirty Dancing, Grease, Big, Alive, Dumb & Dumber, Edward Scissorhands, California Man, Back to the Future...the list is probably endless but I think these are films EVERYONE should have watched at least once. In fact, if you know me, I will MAKE you watch them!

As for my very most favouritest films of all time, I'd go with:

1. Alive. This is a painful true story of a young groups' experience of a life changing disaster. How that can change people and how they cope in this adversity is hard to watch but I adore this film.

2. Dude, where's my car? Hilarious, dumb, crazy, juvenile comedy. This is one of the few films I can watch over and over and still it makes me laugh. Just watch it!

3. The Stand or The Green Mile- both Stephen King adaptations and both outstanding!

Right I think that's me done for now. Except to sign off with the fact that I'm fighting against the urge to do a Lush order. I'm sitting next to a virtual basket that is up to £50 already. I told myself I will just get a few bits I want to try and a couple of the poor soon-to-be-discontinued flosty gritter. But if I continue the temptation my basket will be double that by the end. All essentials you understand?! But I just can't afford it at the moment without spending virtual money. If it's on my credit card it's not real surely?

Material Girl

I don't know whether I should be ashamed by this but at the moment I'm reading the new Sophie Kinsella book called Mini Shopaholic. I fell in love with the series when I read the 1st book which has been turned into the pretty lame film called Confessions of a Shopaholic. I think a lot of women would be able to identify with the protagonist, well those who like shopping anyways (*hands up* me! ME!). I remember requesting my first overdraft and thanking the stars for 'Becky Bloomwood' who was responsible for the idea. I do not thank her so kindly for it now! But I adore the way in which Kinsella captures the shopping instinct- if you've ever experienced the 'rush' of retail therapy I seriously recommend these books, easy if sometimes predictable reads but laugh out loud funny. She's good at suspense and little twists too.

Other books I would wholeheartedly recommend are

1. The Clockwork Orange - appeal for all adult readerships, so many facets to this story. Legendary Literature!

2. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King -I would describe the genre as fantasy but even though I'm not a fan of those kinds of books these are mind blowingly fabulous!

3. Hannah's Gift - factual 'life story' type book which is achingly sad and above and beyond other books in the genre. Extra poignant if you have children. Certainly made me re-evaluate a few things

4. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials have also been surprisingly enjoyable. I'd been putting off reading them and did take a little while to capture my attention but they are great! Very unusual and captivating. Not seen the film yet but I will look it up when I get chance...

The story so far...

You know I hate when people use the word normal. I don't know why that offends me. I think it's something to do with the way everyone expects you to conform. I also hate when people try to sell you insurance at 10 o'clock at night. Another thing I hate is when Lush discontinues my favourite things! It is good to know those things are being replaced with new goodies but still...

With all the things I've bought and used from Lush you would think it would be easy to select a couple of favourites. It's actually quite hard. But here is my top 3:

1. American Cream hair conditioner. When I first smelled this I wasn't keen, I thought it smelt like ash (!) but after a few uses I simply adore the smell. It's like a 'dirty' vanilla smell. By that I mean vanilla in a leather jacket rather than dancing in a pink fairy suit. Not that it smells unclean. My hair is coloured and regularly straightened and this is enough conditioning for my hair. That's quite a feat. Prior to this I was using intensive hair masks and I find it equally as good as those but it's the scent that makes it. It lingers on your hair till the next wash, you don't need much so it works out as fair value and it is a smell that compliments so many other Lush products.

2. Comforter bubble bar. If you use Lush you will be more than familiar with this. It's a blackcurrant bubble explosion for your tub. Rich and deeply scented, this bubble bar is also softening and colours the bath a lovely rich pinky purple. The bar itself is enough for 4 generous baths if you like lots of gorgeously fragranced bubbles. It's fab all alone or to mix with other fruity or sweet scents.

3. Finally it's my beloved Candy Fluff dusting powder. This is a balls out, 10 foot, glittery pink fairy. In all seriousness I think the dusting powders aren't given enough credit. You can use them after a massage bar to soak up some of the excess oils, after a bath or in sticky weather to dry you off, as a substitute deodorant, in your shoes to keep your tootsies dry and smelling fresh, shake on the carpet and vacuum a little later a la shake 'n' vac or even a little sprinkle on your mattress and pillows before you put on your bed linen. The possibilities are endless! The smell of this particular powder is likened to Snow Fairy but I can tell the difference. I find it less cloying and far fresher than that. It has sparkly bits in too so looks amazing on the skin. Great value as it lasts an age- my 1st pot lasted almost 3 months!

Oh! And another thing I hate: when my laptop runs out of battery (without telling me) while I'm halfway through a post!

Blogger noob (I am assured that means newbie)

I like talking. A lot. I used to like keeping diaries as a kid and did it right up until a few years ago. Don't know why I stopped but I suppose the habit just died. So being the digital age and all that malarkey...

At the moment I have a healthy (and expensive!) obsession with Lush cosmetics. I love to buy and use their products, their (sometimes controversial) moral/ethical perspectives, the fragrances they use... so Lush will feature heavily in my ramblings. Besides that I am a lover of literature, passionate about music & dabbling in cookery. The most important things in my life are the members of my family. I like nice things too-besides Lush I like yankee candles, american candy, ANYTHING with cherries or cupcakes on (I even have a tattoo of each. You can probably see that I like brackets quite a lot too. Why yes, my mind often does go off on a tangent)

My original plan was just to make lists of all the gorgeous goodies I've had from Lush (it's become a teeny weeny bit of an obsession - but what else makes you feel & smell SO good?!) but that list has become so long that I thought it would be a little tedious for reading. I kinda fancied writing a blog anyhoo so maybe think of this as reading someone's diary. With permission of course!

My first Lush experience went a little like this: I actually visited Lush twice before buying anything, it just seemed so overpriced. I actually came away thinking you are paying for the handmade-iness of it rather than the products themselves. How wrong I was! 4 of us booked to go to a Pamper party at our local Lush store. The evening consisted of a facial where they used cleanser, fresh face mask, massage & moisturiser. This was followed by either a foot or hand treatment (in our party 2 opted for hand & 2 for foot), I chose a hand treatment which was an exfoliation of the hand & arm, a massage bar rub & dusting powder finish. The environment was lovely- music playing in the background, attentive & friendly staff, bubbly with chocolates & strawberries too. Then at the end of the evening you are allowed to spend £20 on products in store (which I chose to spend on the products that'd been used on me- was divine to come home & do the same treatments for myself that I'd been treated to in store. Really makes a difference to have the things demonstrated!) And there starts the slippery slope to Lush Addictiondom!